LILLE SOUTHERN CEMETERY​​​Nord

​France

Location Information

Follow the A25 motorway from Armentieres and exit at Junction 4. Follow the road to the right toward the hospital and turn left at the second set of traffic lights. Follow this road straight on until reaching the junction at the Church. Go straight through the junction until reaching traffic lights. The cemetery entrance is straight ahead at the junction of the Rue du Faubourg des Postes and the Rue de l'Arbrissead.

Visiting Information

Wheelchair access to this cemetery is possible with some difficulty.

Historical Information

Lille was occupied by the Germans from the 27th August, to the 5th September 1914, and again on the 12th October; and it remained in their hands, undamaged by Allied artillery, until the 17th October 1918.

Southern Cemetery was used by the Germans during the greater part of the War, and after the Armistice by the 39th Stationary Hospital and the 1st Australian Casualty Clearing Station.

During the 1939-45 War, at the end of March 1940, the 50th Division was near Lille; while in May the same year No.10 Casualty Clearing Station used the Cemetery from the 16th to the 25th of the month.

There are now over 600, 1914-18 and nearly 300, 1939-45 war casualties commemorated in this site. Of these, a small number from the 1914-18 War are unidentified and a special memorial is erected to one soldier from the United Kingdom known to be buried among them. From the 1939-45 War nearly 40 are unidentified.

The French number of Plot I is V.2; that of Plot II, V.4; and that of Plot III (where British prisoners of War are buried) J.1. The Second War graves are in french Plot 82.

Son of Joseph and Mary Ann Colless husband of Anna J. Colless, of "Coromandel", Wood St. Fremantle East, Western Australia. Born at Bourke New South Wales.

He was listed as missing at Fleurbaix on July 20th 1916 and later confirmed as a Prisoner of War. He died at Kriegslz Part 1, Lille, from Sepsis caused by grenade splinters in each leg and was buried by the Germans at Lille Southern Cemetery.

Husband of Mrs E. Rostron of 55 Tentre Street, Burnley. Father of one son. He was reported missing on 26th October 1914. Prior to enlisting, he was a reservist and worked as a weaver at Messrs. Collinge's shed in Burnley Wood.

Son of Henri Noel and Agnes Trotobas, of Stoke Poges, Buckinghamshire. Formerly served with the Middlesex Regiment. (Buried below the Resistance Movement Memorial).

​His headstone bears the inscription; "In Loving Memory Of My Son "Capitaine Michel" Killed In Action With The French Resistance."

Michael Alfred Raymond Trotobas (1914-1943) was born of British and French parents and spent part of his early life in both Northern France and England. In 1939 he became a regular soldier in the Middlesex Regiment. After Dunkirk (1940) he was recruited to the Special Operations Executive's (SOE) French Section and given a commission in the Manchester Regiment.